In later generations, national bonds can be bought up every year, so the interest rate is obviously not low. In ancient times, when there were no good investments, an annual interest rate of 5% could already attract many people.
There are also a lot of people in wealthy families who are more traditional and pursue stability.
"Okay, we don't have any problems, but we have collected some opinions before, and some of them said that they can invest in the railway, or use other methods to allow them to advance funds to build the railway. I have discussed it with people in the ministry Having experienced similar things, it seems that His Highness's plan is better now." Fang Xuanling nodded.
"Buying shares? This is possible, but are they willing? Anyway, you can tell them directly that the railway is destined to be in a state of long-term losses." Li Ke said simply.
"They are definitely willing to do this, but they also have conditions." Fang Xuanling said.
"What conditions?"
"It means allowing them to freely trade their shares in the future." Fang Xuanling said.
"That's for sure." Li Ke nodded. Since it is a joint-stock system, it is normal for the shares to be bought and sold. Although Datang does not have a stock market, the trading of shares is just like buying and selling in a store.
This is not something that is difficult to operate, not to mention that ordinary people who can buy and sell these things are not able to buy them.
"The second is that after the railway is opened, their idea is that the trains running on a certain section of railway, or the section of railway they invested in, will give them priority to reserve a certain proportion of carriages, which they will use to transport goods." Fang Xuanling said the second request.
Li Ke was silent for a moment. He didn't expect these people to see the most important thing about the railway so quickly, which is the transportation capacity, or to put it more bluntly, the carriages.
Think about it, when Li Ke was a child in his last life, train carriages were really scarce goods. How many corrupt officials had the authority to allocate this and corrupted huge astronomical figures?
Now, those who are ready to invest have seen the profit points.
In other words, they have seen the most critical thing. It doesn't matter if they invest money now, or even lose money. Anyway, they can earn back the money that cannot be earned here through the timeliness of delivering goods.
Even just the cost of using the carriages can make a profit without losing any money. The timeliness of transportation has great support for business activities.
What's more, although this share itself does not make money, it is valuable in itself. Thinking about it this way, the huge amount of money invested in the early stage is actually not a blessing. It can only be said to buy a future for yourself.
When investing in a certain railway, if there are really transportation carriages that can be reserved, then the family can focus on increasing investment along this railway line or even in several nearby cities.
Li Ke didn't speak, and Fang Xuanling naturally couldn't speak. However, after a pause, Wei Zheng asked directly: "Your Highness is thinking about this matter because he is afraid that these people will disrupt the market in the future after getting these priorities." Is this behavior even possible to affect the operation of Datang Railway?"
"This is not possible. They have priority in the proportion of shares they can get, and when the shares are given to them, they can sign a contract in advance to explain the rights of the shares. For example, they can check the accounts, but they only have the right to know. "
"The other thing is that they only have the rights to dividends, buying and selling, etc., and have no right to interfere in business operations." Li Ke shook his head.
"But by then, these rights of the railway will inevitably be distributed, and if they have shares in it, they may collude with local officials." Wei Zheng said directly, the supervisory rights are his, and Wei Zheng is naturally very concerned about this. concerned.
"This is unavoidable. No matter how perfect the system is, corruption cannot be avoided. It cannot be eliminated. Therefore, we cannot not do some things just because there are disadvantages." Li Ke shook his head.
This kind of corruption has nothing to do with where you are or what policies you implement. If you want to collude, everything has huge benefits.
There is no other way but to strengthen governance from various aspects such as supervision, review, and punishment.
"Actually, what I'm thinking about is how to make good use of the funds they have. There are many rich people in Datang. If they spend all their money, Datang will be many times richer and more powerful. "Li Ke said with a smile.
“This aspect is not just about building a railway, but there is also a very critical thing, that is, those places have development potential and economic development potential, and then these important places can be given priority for construction, and the railway It became the blood vessel network that transported nutrients to the Tang Dynasty." Li Ke said.
Li Ke is really not familiar with this thing. Although he has the historical construction standards of China's railways and the order before and after, times are different and some things are also different.
And this does not include strategic railways.
"Do you need me to go back and investigate each city?" Fang Xuanling asked.
Although this is a job for herself, Fang Xuanling has always been very serious when working.
"Forget it, leave it to me. In fact, these things are nothing more than a few points, geographical location, including transportation, exchanges, population and other key elements."
"The second is development potential. For example, coastal port cities, such as Hudu, which is now renamed Shanghai, have undoubted future development potential. It should be said that all coastal cities that can build ports have huge development potential. "
"Because the low cost of sea transportation is obvious, not to mention that the Tang Dynasty's navy will be Datang's strategic arm in the future and the main development direction of Datang. Controlling the sea is equivalent to Datang's control of countless land masses."
"So the convenience of shipping and other aspects make port cities very important."
"In addition to these, there are mineral resource-based cities. For some important mineral resource cities, railways must be built as soon as possible in the early stage. Many factories cannot be built in every place."
"Even if the factory is built, what about the finished products produced by the factory? It still takes the entire Tang Dynasty to digest it. The transportation of these products is also a huge problem."
"Third, the important strategic position. Although some places have no minerals and are not important ports, due to their important strategic positions, these places must be connected to railways." Li Ke listed some key points of railway transportation. explained.
